THE surge of tuberculosis (TB) has become a grave health concern, and PNG could no longer afford to be lethargic in addressing the issue, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says.
PNG was far from achieving the global and national TB control targets, a report produced by WHO highlighted.
The national TB program detected only about 20% of the estimated new sputum smear positive cases under the Directly Observe Therapy Short-course (DOTS) and treated only about 60% of them successfully, against the targets of 70% and 85% respectively.
The TB situation coupled with the HIV/AIDS epidemic has placed a heavy burden on health care services as well as cutting short the lifespan of HIV positive people.
Stephen Lewis, the UN Secretary General’s special envoy on HIV/AIDS who visited the country recently said: ‘TB and HIV act on each other with fatal force – a combination made in hell.”
However, WHO said in order to address the worsening problem of TB, the Health Department last September signed a historic grant agreement with the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and malaria.
WHO played a significant role in assisting the Health Department in receiving the grant of US$21 million that would assist in a phased expansion of the Stop TB Strategy across the country over the next five years.
This year, the phased expansion programme is to start in the National Capital District and Morobe province, while Milne Bay, Madang and Eastern Highlands will be included in the programme next year.
The other provinces, which will not be covered in the initial phase, can still seek support from the Health Department and WHO.
The department plans to work closely with the Pediatric Society of PNG and WHO to improve TB case management of adults as well as children in the country.
WHO said it would assist PNG to procure child-friendly high quality TB drug formulations that were easily dispersed in liquid.